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Loser takes all

The doyen of Loser Lit is back, as bumptious, sometimes plain obnoxious and excruciatingly embarrassing as ever. And still very, very funny. This is a real feat, because in this follow-up to How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (early working title, Awaken the Dwarf Within), he isn’t quite such a failure as before. He has written a bestseller, for one thing; and for another, he has become a father, which, aside from becoming a mother, must rank as one of life’s greatest achievements, although, as he points out, it’s really very easy to do. “Even animals have been known to pull it off. You might as well congratulate someone for managing to use the lavatory.” And he has hung on to his job as theatre critic of The Spectator, something I’m keenly aware of as he’s always